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Introduction
The fashion industry is always under high attention and the vehement discussion due to its changing and unpredictable nature and sometimes-scandalous outfits. Moreover, fashion has a high influence on the various aspects of everyday life such as the cities’ development (Pandolfi 2015). Furthermore, fashion is often associated with luxury, underlines one’s social status, and emphasizes the particular lifestyle (Calefato 2014).
Nonetheless, the fashion industry is also related to the mass-market production and such phenomenon as the fast-fashion industry. In this case, the couture designs are adapted to the public and rapidly released for sales (Shaw & Koumbis 2014). This fact implies the fast flow of trends and short product life cycle. In the end, high attention is usually paid to the luxury brands, as they define the flow of the fashion trends in the world. However, the role of fast fashion cannot be underestimated, as it delivers clothes to mass market.
Nonetheless, it could be assumed that clothes and other fashion attributes have a strong influence on the perceptions of personal identity and social status among the individuals. In this case, the paper will focus on fast-fashion and interrelation between the fashion industry and psychology, as setting the simple research question will limit the research to the particular emphasis and area of the fashion industry.
In the end, the primary goal of the paper is to propose the suitable methodology and analysis of the information to find the relevant answer to the research question. Consequently, the literature review is conducted to determine the necessity of the research in this field and underline the rationale for the problem. Lastly, the sufficient methodology for the research and data analysis is proposed to find the response to the research question.
Literature Review
The primary goal of the literature review is to analyse the influence of the various fashion attributes on the social status and personal identity. In this instance, only high-quality articles from reliable sources are used to acquire information about this matter. The literature review determines whether the problem exists.
Firstly, the article Reading Fashion as Age – Teenage girls’ and Grown Women’s Accounts of Clothing as Body and Social Status by Klepp and Storm-Mathisen underlines that women have a tendency to pay more attention to fashion as a determinant of their social status and personal identity due to the association of their social roles with reproduction and sexuality (Klepp and Storm-Mathinsen 2005).
The article covers the main topic of the paper, but it does not provide particular details of fast fashion market and the interrelation between fashion and psychology. It emphasizes differences in the decisions between men and women. Nonetheless, it underlines the necessity of profound research of this aspect due to the lack of data regarding this matter.
Furthermore, the fashionable attributes were always considered as being important aspects while defining the personal identity and underlying the social status. Many historical examples have a tendency to exist. For instance, the particular dresses and accessorize contributed to the understanding of the social status of a person in Late Qing Shanghai (Zamperini 2003).
Despite the long existence of the phenomenon, some features remain undiscovered due to the limited focus of the studies, and the modern studies lack the information about the fast-fashion. It remains evident that the further research is essential in this field.
In turn, Wu, Chaney, Chen, Nguyen, and Melevar underline that luxury brands are used to emphasize the belonging to the particular social status in the article Luxury fashion brands: factors influencing young female consumers’ luxury fashion purchasing in Taiwan (2015).
The primary drawback of the article is the fact that it focuses on the luxury brands and is limited to Taiwan. This aspect underlines the rationale for the further research of the mass market and necessity to determine the interrelation between social status and fashion in this context.
The article Fashion Thinking: Fashion Practices and Sustainable Interaction Design by Pan, Roedl, Blevis, and Thomas states that people use fashion attributes to emphasize their social status and underlie their understanding of aesthetics to comply with the social principles (Pan et al. 2015).
Nonetheless, it is not the initial focus of the study, as its primary goal is to cultivate the understanding of the complexity of interactivity of the fashion design (Pan et al. 2015). This aspect also underlines the essentiality of the research of interdependence between fashion and the social status in the context of fast fashion and mass-market production.
The article Interpersonal Effects on Fashion Consciousness and Status Consumption Moderated by Materialism in Metropolitan Men by Lertwannawit and Mandhachitara focuses on the aspect that people have a tendency to consume particular products to highlight their social status (Lertwannawit & Mandhachitara 2012).
However, it remains evident that the research is rather limited and does not provide any information about the consumer behaviour and attitudes while purchasing the fast fashion products. Additionally, it is also limited by gender, as it focuses on observing and reflecting the consumer behaviour of the male consumers (Lertwannawit & Mandhachitara 2012). In the end, it remains evident that the research of the similar question on the fast-fashion market is essential due to the lack of the research in this field.
As for the personal identity, the clothing is highly used to create the perception and communication with people of different groups, as the article Fashion and Clothing: The Construction and Communication of Gay Identities by Schofield and Schmidt discusses this aspect in the context of gay identity and interactions with the other social groups (Schofield & Schmidt 2005). In this case, further research is necessary, as this article pays attention to the one social segment only. Additionally, it does not provide any details about the fast-fashion.
In turn, the article The Development of Consumption Culture and Individualization of Female Identity: Fashion Discourse in Netherlands 1880-1920 by Delhaye states that the clothes became more personal over a period of time (Delhaye 2006).
Nonetheless, the primary limitation of this article is its focus on the specific historical period and geographical location. This aspect states that the fashion has an influence on personal identity, but it lacks information about the interrelation between fast fashion and social status in the modern world.
Moreover, comfort and identity are two words, which are used to describe the main characteristics that fashion needs to comply with, state Jayne and Ferencuhova in the article Comfort, Identity, and Fashion in the Post-Socialist City: Materialities, Assemblages, and Context (2015).
This study contributes to the understanding of the interdependence between fashion, identity, and comfort. Nonetheless, the primary limitation of the research is its emphasis on the particular historical period. In this instance, the further research of the trends in the modern fashion industry related to social status and personal identity is necessary due to the lack of information in this field.
Additionally, the article Postmodern Identity: Image Fashion and New Technologies by Abrudan emphasizes that fashion has an influence on the personal identity, as the correlation between this social phenomenon and fashion attributes cannot be unnoticed (Abrudan 2012).
In this instance, the fashion has an influence on the construction of the personal identity emphasizing one’s social status with the assistance of clothes (Abrudan 2012). Nonetheless, it remains unclear whether the fashion trends are formed based on the social norms or vice versa. In this instance, further research of the presence of this phenomenon in the fast fashion market has to be discovered, as no relevant and sufficient studies have not been conducted previously.
Lastly, the article Luxury Fashion Brand Consumers in China: Perceived Value, Fashion Lifestyle, and Willingness to Pay by Li, Li, and Kambele focuses on the fact the people have a tendency to buy luxury fashion products in China (Li, Li & Kambele 2012). It is evident that the research discovers the influence of the fashion on the personal identity.
Nonetheless, the primary limitation of this research is the fact that it does not provide information about the fast fashion brands, which have a tendency to adapt the trends to the mass market. Additionally, this study pays high attention to the particular geographical region. Consequently, this aspect also limits the application of the findings, as representatives of different cultures have different traditional and social values.
Nonetheless, it remains evident that a significant number of researches were conducted regarding this research question, as the influence of fashion on the personality tends to exist. However, the researchers discuss only luxury brands and lack information about the fast-fashion clothes. In this instance, it is evident that the research in this area is an essentiality, as no data was previously collected to discover the interrelation between fashion and social perception profoundly.
Methodology
This section provides the information about the relevant and most applicable research methods, which will contribute to sufficient analysis of the information while finding the answer to the research question. Based on the literature review, the research question can be formulated as ‘do fast-fashion clothes and fashion attributes have an influence on the perception of the social status and personal identity?’.
This question will define the particular focus of the problem and contribute to the discovery of the issue in this context since no sufficient studies were conducted previously. The literature review was the first step to determine the rationale for the research. Secondly, the data will be collected with the assistance of organizing the observations to determine the correlation between the brand and the social status.
However, in this instance, more attention will be paid to the consumer behaviour, as this aspect will help determine whether the behaviour of the individuals changes with the introduction of fast-fashion attributes. In the end, the analysis of the date will be conducted by utilizing bivariate analysis and typology, as this aspect will contribute discovering the interdependence between the terms and concepts.
Nonetheless, it would be hard to observe the individuals in the natural environment, as the variables are hard to control. In this instance, subjective and objective observation will be used, as, it remains evident that one of the variables have to be manipulated to determine whether brand attributes in the mass market affect the social status of an individual. In this case, the independent variable is the mass-market clothes attributes, which are given to the participants of the experiment.
In turn, the dependent variable is the consumer behaviour, which will be observed with or without the given items. Nonetheless, only limited number of participants (10) will participate in the observation, as, otherwise, the bias might take place. The sampling will be randomized to minimize the misconceptions in the data interpretation. However, the similar observation might be conducted again to underline the existence of interdependence between variables.
It remains evident that it is essential to determine whether the interdependence between data sets has a tendency to exist. In this case, the bivariate analysis will be conducted, as only two variables participate in the initial research. The primary goal of the analysis is to be descriptive and comparative to provide the information about the relationship between the variables.
Nonetheless, the typology will be applied to determine causes and consequences of the particular behaviour of the participants, as the interpretation of the results by using the variables’ analysis only might not be the relevant approach. Lastly, the data will be interpreted based on the data analysis principles, which are discussed above.
In the end, the qualitative approach is the most appropriate methods, as it will contribute to gathering relevant information about the topic. Moreover, it will help reveal the existence of interdependence between fashion and the social status while analysing the consumer behaviour and their attitude towards fashion.
Furthermore, the utilization of the quantitative research method will help acquire a general perception of the issue and lack sufficient details about the matter. Using the observations will remain a useful approach due to the ability to see visually the dependence between the fast-fashion clothes and social status. As for the data analysis, bivariate analysis and typology of the data will help see the interdependence between different aspects.
Reference List
Abrudan, E, 2012, ‘Postmodern identity: image fashion and new technologies’. Journal of Media Research, vol. 5, no. 1, p. 1.
Calefato, P 2014, Luxury, lifestyle, and excess, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, London.
Delhaye, C, 2006, ‘The development of consumption culture and individualization of female identity: fashion discourse in Netherlands 1880-1920’, Journal of Consumer Culture, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 87-115.
Jayne, M, & Ferencuhova, S 2005, ‘Comfort, identity, and fashion in the post-socialist city: materialities, assemblages, and context’, Journal of Consumer Culture, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 329-350.
Klepp, I & Storm-Mathinsen, R 2005, ‘Reading fashion as age – teenage girls’ and grown women’s accounts of clothing as body and social status’, Fashion Theory, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 323-342.
Lertwannawit, A, & Mandhachitara, R, 2012, ‘Interpersonal effects on fashion consciousness and status consumption moderated by materialism in metropolitan men’, Journal of Business Research, vol. 65, no. 10, pp. 1408-1416.
Li, G, Li, G & Kambele, Z, 2012, ‘Luxury fashion brand consumers in china: perceived value, fashion lifestyle, and willingness to pay’, Journal of Business Research, vol. 65, no. 10, pp. 1516-1522.
Pan, Y, Roedl, D, Blevis, E, & Thomas, J 2015, ‘Fashion thinking: fashion practices and sustainable interaction design’, International Journal of Design, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 83-95.
Pandolfi, V 2015, Fashion and the city: the role of the ‘cultural economy’ in the development strategies of three Western European cities, Uitgeverij Eburon, Eburon.
Schofield, K & Schmidt, R, ‘Fashion and clothing: the construction and communication of gay identities’, International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management, vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 310-323.
Shaw, D & Koumbis, D 2014, Fashion buying: from trend forecasting to shop floor, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, London.
Wu, M, Chaney, I, Chen, Nguyen, B, & Melevar, T 2015, ‘Luxury fashion brands: factors influencing young female consumers’ luxury fashion purchasing in Taiwan’, Qualitative Market Research, vol. 18, no. 3, p. 298.
Zamperini, P, 2003, ‘On their dress they wore a body: fashion and identity in late Qing Shanghai’, Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique, vol. 11, no. 2, p. 301.
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